Coons to Wilmington VA: Certify books aren't cooked

Sen. Chris Coons is asking the new director of the Wilmington Veterans Affairs Medical Center to certify that it is not employing a "recordkeeping gimmick" to "disguise backlogs in patient treatment," as has been alleged at the Phoenix VA center - a practice blamed for patient deaths.

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"The mere possibility that bureaucratic misconduct would lead to neglect and suffering of our veterans is appalling, so I am writing today to ensure that no such behavior is occurring at VA facilities in Delaware," Coons, D-Del., wrote to Robin Aube-Warren, who took the top job at Wilmington in mid-March.

It's not known whether Wilmington, located near Elsmere, is one of the 26 centers under investigation by VA's Inspector General, a move made public Tuesday; other than Phoenix, none are being identified. "We are not disclosing the locations," VA IG spokeswoman Cathy Gromek told the News Journal today.

The IG said it will investigate the 26 medical centers to see whether they have been manipulating schedules to hide delays in patient care - delays that the original whistleblower, a longtime VA physician, told Gannett's Arizona Republic led to as many as 40 patient deaths.

The ensuing uproar has led for calls to fire embattled VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who was summoned to the White House Wednesday morning. Although he retains his job, President Obama held a subsequent press conference at which he called the improper scheduling practices "intolerable" and "disgraceful."

Obama also dispatched a top aide to Phoenix to investigate the alleged deaths. The IG told the Senate last week that an initial investigation found no correlation between the delays and the deaths.

Wilmington's scheduling practices in the mental health arena have been questioned before. In November 2011, a Wilmington VA psychotherapist, Michelle Washington, told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee that veterans requiring mental health therapy were waiting far longer than VA's own 14-day standard to begin their actual therapy, with a lack of adequate staff a key issue.

The committee's then-chairwoman, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said her own staff's research had found that only 63 percent of providers could schedule patients for mental health appointments within 14 days. That was 2 1/2 years ago, and demands on VA services have grown as greater numbers of veterans who come home from the war in Afghanistan and leave the service seek treatment for an increasing number of maladies and injuries.

In a May 2012 response to a News Journal Freedom of Information Act request, Wilmington dodged a question about the amount of time vets were then waiting for mental health care. "In fiscal year 2012, Veterans Health Administration expanded its definition of access and designated measures to capture important components of access," read the center's response. "VHA is currently reviewing multiple issues to assess patient wait time more accurately."

But Aube-Warren told the News Journal Apr. 16 that the wait times for mental health treatment have dramatically improved. New patients who ask to be assessed specifically for mental health issues get their first appointment in an average of 6.5 days after enrollment, and begin their treatment plans within 10 days after that assessment - five fewer than in 2012.

Overall, she said, the average wait time for newly enrolled veterans to be seen by a primary care provider at Wilmington is 11 days.